The Rules of Matn Criticism: There are No Rules

In an effort to avoid the subjectivity of individual reason, Sunni Islam elaborated a

method of ḥadīth criticism that subordinated evaluating the meaning of a report to

an examination of its chain of transmission. With the fourth/tenth-century epistemological

compromise of Ashʿarism, however, Sunni ḥadīth scholars adopted rationalist

criteria of content criticism that included explicit rules for rejecting ḥadīths because

of their meaning. is resulted in a strong internal tension within Sunni ḥadīth

criticism from the fifth/eleventh century onwards, with one and the same scholar

upholding rigid rules of content criticism but not employing them or even rejecting

them in application. e inherent subjectivity of content criticism resulted in different

Muslim scholars either rejecting or affirming the same ḥadīths. Some scholars were

much more inclined to reject a ḥadīth out of hand because of its meaning, while

others were willing to extend a ḥadīth more interpretive charity. e tension created

by the subjectivity of content criticism emerged in unprecedented relief in the modern

period, when ‘science’ and modern social norms presented an unmatched challenge

to the interpretive awe in which pre-modern (and Traditionalist scholars today) held

attributions to the Prophet.

The Rules of Matn Criticism – There are No Rules – Islamic Law and Society